From doom to boom: Illinois peregrine falcons no longer threatened

A peregrine falcon screeches from a perch above the University Club of Chicago, on Monroe Street at South Michigan Avenue on July 1, 2014.

A peregrine falcon screeches from a perch above the University Club of Chicago, on Monroe Street at South Michigan Avenue on July 1, 2014. (Chris Walker, Chicago Tribune)

Rachel Crosby

As peregrine falcons rebound, one man got up close and personal: “I've pretty much got 'Wild Kingdom' on

Talons clenched, eyes locked on prey, a peregrine falcon looks almost peaceful as it leans forward, relaxes and drops into a 200-mph dive for dinner. It is the fastest known animal on earth. And it has no predator.

Yet there was a time when the raptors' screeches went silent along the riverside cliffs of Illinois. Their population here: zero.

By the 1960s, humans had taken a toll. Pesticides like DDT thinned their eggshells, so parents crushed their chicks before they even hatched. Season after season, fewer and fewer.

But after the population nosedive, a climb.

The peregrine falcon's status in Illinois has improved over the years from endangered to threatened, and now the bird has been removed altogether from the state list of species needing aid, said officials, who plan to make the announcement Tuesday. Peregrine falcons are still federally protected but no longer on the edge of extinction.

This time, humans had helped them. It took about 30 years, but conservation and the bird's own adaptability put it back on the map, albeit a different spot: the city of Chicago.

Now, there are more falcons in Illinois than ever.

"We have exceeded our historic population levels," said Mary Hennen, director of the Chicago Peregrine Program, operated out of the Field Museum.

When the peregrine falcon goes into a dive, flying birds don't have a chance. Published April 8, 2013. (National Geographic, YouTube)

When the peregrine falcon goes into a dive, flying birds don't have a chance. Published April 8, 2013. (National Geographic, YouTube)

To be fair, Hennen said, Illinois never had many falcons to begin with. It used to share about 50 pairs of peregrines with the entire Midwest.

The birds longed for height and traditionally lived in cliffs like the few along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, she said. "Keep in mind we're a Plain state."

But there was something about the city. It has no cozy, rocky bluffs, but it is filled with potential perches — skyscrapers, high-rises, even the water intake cribs on Lake Michigan. And plenty of prey, like pigeons. So they settled. And multiplied.

Though the restoration effort spanned the entire Midwest, Chicago ended up being "the center for recovery," said Angelo Capparella, an Illinois State University zoology professor.

In Illinois alone, there are now 29 falcon nesting territories — known locations that hold one or two birds. Twenty of those territories are in the city, the Chicago Peregrine Program reports.

"It's a conservation success story," Capparella said. "Sometimes you delist because a species is extinct, which is not a good thing. Delisting in this case is a good thing. It's pretty exciting."

Hennen credits the success to people passionate about peregrines.The program receives private donations, but volunteers and local activists all play a part. And the city offers an unusual vantage point for those people to monitor the birds, recognize when they're in trouble and ultimately intervene.

Dacey Arashiba had the opportunity to watch a pair of falcons through his sliding glass door this spring. The 48-year-old lives in a Lakeview high-rise, where two peregrine falcons happened to rest, nest and hatch four chicks on his 28th-floor balcony.

In a vacant planter where he'd been meaning to grow basil and rosemary, four white, fluffy baby falcons grew instead. But it's OK, he said. "I'm not much of a gardener."

Instead he cataloged the birds as they changed from chick to juvenile, watching worriedly as they walked the balcony's edge — testing themselves — ready to fly.

"I felt like my mom," he said, "Like 'God, give me strength.' "

With each update, he posted a photo to Instagram. By the end of June, when the birds had fledged and left, he gained about 500 followers. But it was never about him. His poop-stained mess of a balcony proves that.

"Over the course of two months it got covered with droppings, bird wings, bird legs," he said, leftover from the falcons' feasts. "It looked like the end of a battle. Just parts everywhere."

But he took a liking to the birds: Linda Perry, Steve Perry, Luke Perry, Katy Perry, Joe Perry and finally, "Refrigerator" Perry, as he playfully named them. Though they moved out, he still sees them practicing hunting from neighboring buildings across the way. They stop by occasionally.

"It was really cool," he said. "I mean a lot of people were asking me, aren't you angry?"

The birds can be loud. He'll be scrubbing his balcony with vinegar for the next few weeks. But no, he said. He's not.

"I've pretty much got 'Wild Kingdom' on my balcony," he would tell them.

Chicago is not the only place peregrine falcons are on the rise. Hennen said the climb is national, including a jump in urban jungles like New York and London. Throughout the Midwest and their migratory zones in Canada, there are now about 300 falcon territories.

The birds were removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999, she said. They've been plucked off state threatened lists here and there since.

"Yes, it's a great success story. I don't want to diminish that on any front," she said. "But it's not going to change our program."

The U.S. still exports DDT, she said. And some places where peregrines migrate still use it. Researchers know because chemical traces have come up in a few East Coast falcons. There is work to do, she said.